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Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/tsmc-says-ai-demand-is-endless-after-record-q4-earnings/ [arstechnica.com]

On Thursday, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) reported [tsmc.com] record fourth-quarter earnings and said it expects AI chip demand to continue for years. During an earnings call, CEO C.C. Wei told investors that while he cannot predict the semiconductor industry’s long-term trajectory, he remains bullish on AI.
[...]
“All in all, I believe in my point of view, the AI is real—not only real, it’s starting to grow into our daily life. And we believe that is kind of—we call it AI megatrend, we certainly would believe that,” Wei said [seekingalpha.com] during the call. “So another question is ‘can the semiconductor industry be good for three, four, five years in a row?’ I’ll tell you the truth, I don’t know. But I look at the AI, it looks like it’s going to be like an endless—I mean, that for many years to come.”

TSMC posted net income of NT$505.7 billion (about $16 billion) for the quarter, up 35 percent year over year and above analyst expectations.
[...]
Wei’s optimism stands in contrast to months of speculation [arstechnica.com] about whether the AI industry is in a bubble. In November, Google CEO Sundar Pichai warned [arstechnica.com] of “irrationality” in the AI market and said no company would be immune if a potential bubble bursts. OpenAI’s Sam Altman acknowledged [arstechnica.com] in August that investors are “overexcited” and that “someone” will lose a “phenomenal amount of money.”

But TSMC, which manufactures the chips that power the AI boom, is betting the opposite way, with Wei telling analysts he spoke directly to cloud providers to verify that demand is real before committing to the spending increase.
[...]
The earnings report landed the same day the US and Taiwan finalized [commerce.gov] a trade agreement that cuts tariffs on Taiwanese goods to 15 percent, down from 20 percent.

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